Gina Marie Raimondo (; born May 17, 1971) is an American politician and businesswoman who served as the 40th United States secretary of commerce from 2021 to 2025. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 75th governor of Rhode Island from 2015 to 2021 and was the first woman to serve in the role.
Born and raised in Rhode Island, Raimondo began her career in venture capital after law school. In 2000, she co-founded Point Judith Capital, Rhode Island's first venture capital firm. Raimondo entered politics in 2010, when she was elected General Treasurer of Rhode Island. During her first year in office, she prioritized reforming Rhode Island's public employee pension system.
In 2014, Raimondo was elected governor in a three-way contest with 41% of the vote. While in office, Raimondo was elected to serve as vice chair of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) for the 2018 election cycle. Reelected in 2018, Raimondo was tasked with overseeing the state's initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2020 presidential election, she served as co-chair of Michael Bloomberg's 2020 presidential campaign. During her tenure, Raimondo consistently maintained a negative net approval rating and was one of the least popular governors in the country.
Described as a "moderate technocrat" in The Washington Post, Raimondo is often characterized as a centrist within her party. Chosen to serve as Secretary of Commerce by President Joe Biden, she played a leading role in negotiations for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021.
Early life and education Gina Marie Raimondo was born in 1971 in Smithfield, Rhode Island, where she later grew up. Born to a family of Italian descent, she is the youngest of Josephine (Piro) and Joseph Raimondo's three children. Her father, Joseph (1926–2014), made his career at the Bulova watch factory in Providence, Rhode Island; he became unemployed at 56 when the Bulova company moved its operations to China, shuttering the factory in Providence. U.S. Senator Jack Reed is a family friend.
Raimondo graduated from LaSalle Academy in Providence. She was one of the first girls allowed to attend the Catholic school, from which she was graduated as valedictorian. She went on to Harvard College, graduating magna cum laude in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. While at Harvard, Raimondo resided in Quincy House and served on the staff of The Harvard Crimson. She played rugby at the Radcliffe Rugby Club, later joking that the experience "was good training for a career in politics".
A Rhodes Scholar, Raimondo attended New College, Oxford, where she received a Bachelor of Arts (later promoted to Master of Arts by seniority) and Doctor of Philosophy in 2002 in sociology. Her thesis on single motherhood was supervised by Stephen Nickell and Anne H. Gauthier while she was a postgraduate student of New College, Oxford. Raimondo received her Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1998. She has said that her experience working at housing and poverty clinics inspired her to attend law school.
Early career After graduating from law school, Raimondo served as a law clerk to federal judge Kimba Wood of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Later, Raimondo acted as senior vice president for fund development at the Manhattan offices of Village Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and backed by Bain Capital and Highland Capital Groups.
Raimondo returned to Rhode Island in 2001 to co-found the state's first venture capital firm, Point Judith Capital. Point Judith later relocated to Boston, Massachusetts. At Point Judith, Raimondo served as a general partner covering health care investments; she retains some executive duties with the firm. Under her leadership, Point Judith grew to over $100 million in assets and reportedly helped grow over 20 businesses.
General Treasurer of Rhode Island (2011–2015) 2010 election In 2010, incumbent general treasurer Frank T. Caprio chose to run for governor rather than seek a second consecutive term in office. Describing the position of general treasurer as "a professional job, not a political job", Raimondo announced her candidacy for the position, her first campaign for elected office. In April 2010, former Democratic primary opponent Tom Sgouros dropped out of the race and endorsed Raimondo, leaving her as the only Democratic candidate.
Running a campaign that emphasized her business credentials, Raimondo pledged to "use the power as the chief investment officer to lean on banks to invest again". Her platform called for financial empowerment programs at senior centers and schools, and for protecting consumers from predatory lending and mortgages. On November 2, Raimondo was elected general treasurer, defeating Republican nominee Kernan F. King by a margin of 62% to 38%.2010 General Election Statewide Summary , Rhode Island Board of Elections, November 17, 2010.
Tenure During her first year as general treasurer, she prioritized reforming Rhode Island's public employee pension system, which was 48% funded in 2010. In April 2011, Raimondo led the state retirement board to reduce the state's assumed rate of return on pension investments from 8.25 percent to 7.5 percent.
In May 2011, Raimondo released "Truth in Numbers", a report that advocated benefit cuts as the solution to Rhode Island's pension problems, and she helped lead the effort to cut pensions, along with then-Speaker of the House Gordon Fox. The Rhode Island Retirement Security Act (RIRSA) was enacted by the General Assembly on November 17, 2012, with bipartisan support in both chambers. The next day, then-Governor Lincoln Chafee signed RIRSA into law. RIRSA's legality was challenged in court by the public employee unions, but a settlement was reached in June 2015.
Under Raimondo's tenure, the pension fund was criticized for underperforming when compared with its peers. Raimondo's critics attributed the underperformance to a sharp increase in fees paid to hedge fund managers, while her supporters argued investments in hedge funds stabilize investments during market downturns for more consistent returns over time.
OSIP program Raimondo created the Ocean State Investment Pool (OSIP), designed as a low-cost investment vehicle intended to help the state and municipalities better manage and improve the investment performance of their liquid assets, which are used for day-to-day operations including payroll and operating expenses. $500 million in funds could be eligible for the program, which would enable Treasury "to extend its expertise to municipalities and improve investment returns by creating economies of scale"."Press Release: Ocean State Investment Pool Open to Municipalities" , Rhode Island Office of the General Treasurer, April 23, 2012. The program officially launched on April 23, 2012. As of November 2021, the OSIP program is managed by Fidelity Investments.
Payday lending During the Rhode Island General Assembly's 2012 session, Raimondo advocated for a decrease in the maximum allowable interest rate on payday loans in Rhode Island. She hosted a roundtable discussion with then-Providence mayor Angel Taveras and members of the Rhode Island Payday Reform Coalition.
Raimondo submitted letters to the Senate and House Corporations Committees in support of payday reform legislation. She wrote: "Far too many families are facing financial challenges that might be mitigated or avoided through a greater understanding of personal finance," and "payday loans exploit that lack of understanding... With numerous economic challenges, Rhode Island should not permit the sale of a financial product that traps so many customers in a cycle of debt." Raimondo wrote an op-ed in the May 29, 2012 edition of The Providence Journal in support of payday lending reform.
Governor of Rhode Island (2015–2021)
Elections In 2014, Raimondo ran for governor of Rhode Island, and won a contested Democratic primary against Providence mayor Angel Taveras and former Department of Education official Clay Pell. On November 4, 2014, Raimondo won the general election with 41% of the vote in a three-way race versus Republican Allan Fung and Moderate Party nominee Robert J. Healey.
Raimondo was elected to serve as the vice chair of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) for the 2018 election cycle. She was elected chair of the DGA in 2019. In 2018, Raimondo was reelected, defeating former secretary of state Matt Brown in the Democratic primary and Republican nominee Fung in the general election. Her reelection made her the first candidate to secure a majority of votes for that office since 2006.
Tenure Raimondo was the first female governor of Rhode Island, and one of nine incumbent female governors in the United States at the time of her resignation. During her tenure, she was credited with cutting taxes every year and removed eight thousand pages of regulations—30% of the state's regulations. She raised the state minimum wage to $11.50, created a sick-leave entitlement, financed the largest infrastructure program in the state's history, and made community colleges tuition-free. Raimondo appointed more judges of color than any of her predecessors, including Melissa A. Long, the first Black woman to serve on the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
As governor, Raimondo presided over Rhode Island's initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 28, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo threatened Raimondo with a lawsuit over a new state quarantine policy that would require people from New York, which had been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in Rhode Island. On March 29, Raimondo repealed the order that specifically referred to New Yorkers, broadened it to include any out-of-state traveler entering Rhode Island with intent to stay. During the pandemic, Rhode Island had the nation's highest per capita levels of testing for COVID-19. In November 2020, she issued guidance limiting gatherings to 10 people, imposed a 10 pm curfew on businesses, and required masks outside when with people outside of one's own household.
Approval ratings Between assuming office and the end of 2019, Raimondo consistently ranked toward the bottom of approval ratings for U.S. governors, and was occasionally ranked the nation's least popular governor. During the COVID-19 pandemic, polling found that Raimondo's approval ratings had jumped significantly for her handling of the crisis, polling at roughly 75%. This was identified as part of a nationwide rally 'round the flag effect that saw nearly every state governor's approval ratings significantly improve.
Statewide computer system rollout controversy A widely criticized rollout of a new computer network system for the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services dubbed the "Unified Health Infrastructure Project" (UHIP) in September 2016 saw scores of people without access to government programs such as food stamps and child care due to glitches in the software, designed by Deloitte. This computer crash created a backlog of more than 20,000 cases. The Raimondo administration received several letters from the federal government in August and September 2016, warning that UHIP was not ready to be launched. On Raimondo's orders, the UHIP launch occurred as planned despite these warnings.